The Journey Begins...

The most paradoxical and most unique characteristic of Christianity is that of the resurrection of Christ. In fact, Christianity without this claim is only a moral system without too much spiritual consistency.Unless ALL of Christianity is centered in the victorious, life, and ever present reality of Jesus Christ, the Man-God who conqueror of death, it loses it's distinction.Thus, Christianity proclaims to us that in order to find life we must die to life as we know it. True life and it's meaning must be revealed or in other words received as a "gift."In the resurrection we see that life was given through the death of self. That life is received into our lives.Real life, is not merely a subsistence in one's own self, nor self-assertion or self-gratification.Real life is freedom that transcends the self and exists in "the other" by love. A love that is the result of having received "the gift" of life.This is "freedom," a freedom that comes only from "losing its life in order to find it." The perfection of this life is love.A Christian believes that this love has the power to overcome death.As we move towards "Easter," my spirit is drawn once again into the vastness of this love.In some ways I am intoxicated with the essence of His Presence. The world loses it's hold and the Holy Spirit lifts me out of the grip of this world into the embrace of the "other."Lent, then is more about "receiving" that giving up. Rather than focusing on what one might surrender I sense with every breath that I am receiving far more than I have ever given.This paradox of His death and resurrection is a huge mystery.The tension between – “the wilderness and the mountain”We know Jesus, the “my beloved son,” depended upon the Father for everything. He revealed how we as “creatures” can depend upon our relationship with the Father.We realized that “to believe,” is a call to believe in the “relationship” between the “Father and the Son,” and that through Jesus we have entered into that same “relationship.”Thus we can be “human.” We can depend upon “Our Father….”This is who we are … it is our identity!HE CAME AND IDENTIFIED WITH US… OUR HUMANITYAs Children we can rely upon the “love of our Father.” We don’t have to “hide our humanness.”Rom. 10:11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”Thus our JOURNEY BEGINS…